Driving innovation, research and performance
for turkey producers worldwide

TalkingTURKEYS
Autumn 2016

Revised Live Commercial Goals – Valley of the Moon

B.U.T.6 & B.U.T.Premium

Aviagen® Turkeys has updated the live performance objectives for the B.U.T. 6 & B.U.T. Premium.
These goals have been revised to reflect for the latest top quartile performance being
achieved in customer’s European operations. This information is used to directly support
customer operations, verify delivery of genetic progress and identify opportunities for
further improvements. Copies of all the product performance objectives are available on
request or can be downloaded from the website, www.aviagenturkeys.com

B.U.T. 6

The European benchmark for efficient meat production. Superior liveweight and liveability
makes this breed ideally suited for further processed and value-added products.
Developed over many generations, the B.U.T. 6 is the European standard for efficient
meat production and competitive breeder performance.

Live Performance Objectives Summary

Male
Female

Age
(wks)

Liveweight
(kg)

Average
Daily Gain
(g/day)

FCR
Cumulative
(kg/kg)

Daily Feed
Intake
(g/day)

20
15

21.33
10.32

152.3
98.3

2.48
2.36

665
425

B.U.T. Premium

The B.U.T. Premium is the product of choice for companies that require an easy-to-manage
medium strain with the highest commercial performance at the lowest production costs.
It provides the best overall economic returns, thanks to its combination of sector-leading
liveweight, ease of management, best FCR, high meat yield and superior liveability.

Live Performance Objectives Summary

Male
Female

Age
(wks)

Liveweight
(kg)

Average
Daily Gain
(g/day)

FCR
Cumulative
(kg/kg)

Daily Feed
Intake
(g/day)

18
12

17.38
7.14

137.9
85.0

2.32
2.08

581
342

Two new languages added to the website

Commercial Poults
acquires Forrest Farms

Valley of the Moon Commercial Poults, Inc.
(VOMCP) based in Osceola, Iowa, supplies
highly selected, quality Nicholas commercial
poults and eggs to the turkey industry. It is a
subsidiary of Aviagen Group Holdings, Inc.
As part of its ongoing
investment in the North
American Turkey industry,
VOMCP is pleased to
announce the acquisition of
Forrest Farms turkey facilities
in central Illinois. Matti
Shalev established Forrest
Farms twenty years ago to supply the industry with quality
turkey hatching eggs and he has recently built new
facilities to meet increasing demand. Matti will also join
the VOMCP team, adding his years of experience to
VOMCP’s mission to remain the leader in turkey breeding
and distribution. Aviagen Turkeys Inc. (ATI) will make
further substantial investments in improving biosecurity,
infrastructure and production flow at this location.
Clint Grimsley, VOMCP president noted, “Matti has been
producing hatching eggs for Valley of the Moon for several
years and the acquisition is a reflection of this excellent
working relationship.”
Dr. Jihad Douglas, ATI’ president also commented,
“Aviagen initiated the strategy of working more closely with
the end user of Aviagen genetics by forming VOMCP in
2011. This strategy of building partnerships based on trust
and common values has delivered considerable rewards to
our customers. Acquiring Forrest Farms further strengthens
our distribution chain for providing the industry leading
Nicholas genetic package and the best quality commercial
poults. As the only turkey primary breeder to invest
significantly in infrastructure in the United States, we are
proud of our continuous support of the U.S. industry.”

Aviagen® Turkeys is excited to announce they have translated their website into two new
languages, these include Spanish and Russian. This brings the total number of languages
supported by Aviagen Turkeys to 8 and reflects the increasing popularity of the website in
the EMEA.

www.aviagenturkeys.com

New Commercial Manual
September sees the launch of the new
Commercial Manual. The purpose of this
new pocket sized booklet is to help support
customer operations with guidance to all
areas of managing commercial flocks.

The information included will range from when the poults
are placed on the farms to when they leave for processing.
It has been taken into consideration that countries will have
different climates, feed companies and staffing; therefore
the manual gives a wide amount of information for different
systems to ensure the best results can be achieved whilst
using different equipment and suppliers.
The Commercial Manual describes the suitability of certain
products but also provides alternatives to be beneficial to
all systems. This includes the general husbandry of the
flocks such as, feeding, lighting and ventilation as well as
describing biosecurity, growing and weighing systems.
The Commercial Manual can be downloaded from the
website, visit: www.aviagenturkeys.com

Insight into our customer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Biofino
Biofino GmbH have been producing and marketing the highest quality organic poultry meat for 15 years. Due to
there being very few organic poultry suppliers in the 1990â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Biofino entered the market and since that time have
specialised in organic production.
The company was founded in 2000 and has become the market leader in Germany. The German
organic turkey market currently places more than 300,000 turkeys per annum. Biofino is about
50% of this market. From the start, they selected farms and companies with the highest of
standards so all processes are transparent and traceable. The processing plant is based in
Emstek and all upstream partner operations such as the hatchery, farms and organic feed mills

are in Germany with a few in Austria. AviagenÂŽ Turkeys started working with the Biofino team,
three and a half years ago leading to the development of the Hockenhull Auburn turkey breed.
The unique feature of the Hockenhull Auburn is that the sex of the poults can be determined
by the down colour at a day old. This turkey breed is slower growing than the normal
commercial turkey and performs well within organic production in Germany.

Breeder differences at
Aviagen Turkeys trials facility
The latest commercial trial which was completed at the AviagenÂŽ Turkeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trial facility was a
breed evaluation study aimed at testing both Aviagen Turkeys medium and heavy strain products.

Results for B.U.T. 6 and Test Product 7 (TP7)

The recent trial involved an evaluation of commercial heavy strains, which included both the B.U.T. 6 and TP7. Liveweight
performance was impressive with both the B.U.T. 6 and TP7 achieving 22.59kg and 23.79kg respectively.

B.U.T. 6

The B.U.T. 6 is the European standard for competitive breeder performance, delivering health, robustness and efficiency. This
breed has superior liveweight and liveability, making this breed ideally suited for further processed and value-added products.

TP7

The TP7 is an easy-to-manage, high yielding, robust breed. With its competitive breeder performance it delivers
advantages in areas such as litter dryness, gut health and meat production, making this an all round product choice.

Breed

Age
(days)

Liveweight
(kg)

FPD
score

FCR

Breast meat
%

B.U.T. 6

143

22.4

2.1

2.64

24.6

TP7

143

23.3

1.7

2.61

25.5

Table 1: Breed evaluation

Spring 2017offers a commercial
medium bronze turkey

AviagenÂŽ Turkeys expands their product range by offering a commercial medium bronze
turkey to cover the market of cut up and carcass. The bronze breed is a historical lineage and has
been in our gene pool for over 60 years with exceptional robustness.
The Le Sayec Company in France will produce this bronze turkey from February 2017 and will meet growing demands and
growing interest from operators and consumers for this product. The approach is part of sustainable agriculture, therefore
Aviagen Turkeys maintains the heritage coloured lines to be able to offer alternatives to the breeding of tomorrow.
The strain has been registered in the book of reference for French label rouge. For more information please email:
turkeysltd@aviagen.com

Aviagen Turkeys
Market Shares
Increasing
WORLDWIDE
Investment in the pedigree programme
and R & D genetics department is
delivering results in all major markets.
Worldwide our share stands at 61% with
further increase expected and increases
being made in North America and Europe.
The B.U.T. brand remains the leader in Europe and the
Nicholas brand in North and South America.
The European market is split into 2 main segments,
Heavy and Heavy Medium. In the Heavy markets of
Germany, Poland and Italy the B.U.T. 6 is increasing its
share, supported by the Heavy test product TP7.
The B.U.T. 6 has combined excellent reproductive
performance with improvements at commercial level
with improved FCR, whilst the additional selection
for robustness and lower water consumption are
bringing results.
The investment remains high and work already in the
pipeline will lead to further improvements year on year.
The B.U.T. Premium is now the product of choice at
Medium and Heavy Medium level and demand is
increasing in UK, France and Spain where the industry
is based on high reproductive performance and lower
slaughter age.

Hatchery Manager
Appointed
Brett Dodds has been appointed as the Hatchery
Manager for our Grantham Hatchery. In this role Brett
is responsible for the day to day management of both
our pedigree and parent stock hatcheries that operate
on the site. Brett has been working in the Grantham
Hatchery since 2003 when it was being operated as a
chicken hatchery by Aviagen Ltd and transferred over
to turkeys when we took over the hatchery in 2009.
Prior to his new role Brett progressed from being a
shift worker to the Egg
Room Co-Ordinator with
overall responsibility of
the two egg rooms. In
his new role Brett will
continue to report to
Andrew Clear our
Hatchery Operations
Manager.

Aviagen Turkeys
Fundraising Events
So far in 2016, Aviagen Turkeys has been actively
involved in raising money for two charities.
The first charity chosen was ‘The Harry Johnson Trust’,
a local charity situated a few miles from head office. The
trust offers help and support to children and teenagers
who receive care from the Oncology Team at The
Princess Royal Hospital in Shropshire. Aviagen Turkeys
raised a total of £1,296 for ‘The Harry Johnson Trust’ by
walking up the highest mountain in Wales, Snowdonia.
A group of colleagues and their families took on this
fantastic trek, over 3,500 feet which involved walking
around 10 miles, and was completed in around two
and a half hours.

The second charity chosen was ‘Cancer Research UK’,
a charity covering England and Wales. This charity funds
scientists, doctors and nurses to help beat cancer as well
as providing cancer information to the public.
A group of ladies from Aviagen Turkeys raised a total of
£1,527 for ‘Cancer Research UK’ by completing a Race
for Life event, ‘5k Pretty Muddy’. This muddy obstacle
course involved climbing, crawling and charging
through masses of mud to raise money for charity.
Thank you to everyone
who sponsored both
teams from Aviagen
Turkeys. The kindness
and support will go
far to help these
chosen charities.

Latest conferences

Aviagen® Turkeys (ATL) is committed in providing customers with an unrivalled level of
support. So far in 2016 representatives from ATL have attended and hosted many conferences
around the globe.
Ramit & Yeffe Hod Growers Conference Aviagen®
Turkeys (ATL) welcomed Ramit and Yeffe Hod from Israel
to Chester in March for a two day conference which
included a seminar and farm demonstration of the latest
selection technologies used in the breeding programme
at ATL’s dedicated trial facilities. Seven speakers from ATL
led a series of sessions covering a variety of topics of
interest to the Israeli market.
Chateaubourg, France, 22nd March The Châteaubourg conference attracted many specialists in the turkey industry,
proving highly successful. ATL presented its genetic guidelines and discussed the European turkey market. The programme
included subjects on gut health, water quality and turkey behaviour.
JPA (Jornadas Profesionales de Avicultura) The JPA was held in Sevilla, Spain.
Dr. Valentin Kremer from ATL was invited to speak to the many poultry nutritionists
and poultry professionals who attended the conference. Dr. Valentin Kremer
presented ‘The life cycle of the primary pedigree turkey’ discussing the genetic
improvement in pedigree turkeys and the different stages that allow ATL to gather
the appropriate information for selection.
Commercial Turkey Farmers Conference in Algeria ATL organised two training
days with the assistance of seven local distributors for the commercial turkey farmers
in Algeria, which was held in Zéralda and Constantine, on 1st & 2nd June.
Both sessions offered a comprehensive programme for professionals in the turkey
industry. Presentations were given on a variety of topics including, biosecurity, turkey
poult start and management of commercial turkeys. The conference was available to
all positions within the turkey industry including; farmers, technicians and
veterinarians. The turkey industry in Algeria is growing with thousands of independent farmers who need practical support
and training. Given the success of the conference, Aviagen Turkeys expect to repeat the event in other producing regions.
Gerczak Conference Sponsored by Aviagen Turkeys Ltd Gerczak organised a farm open day & conference, letting
guests visit one of their laying farms near Ilawa. Around 180 people attended from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Germany,
including representatives from processing plants, veterinarians and nutritionists. After the tour of the farm, guests were
welcomed by Clay Burrows (Managing Director ATL) and Anatol Gerczak (Owner of the company Gerczak). Other speakers
from ATL included Richard Hutchinson (Sales & Marketing Director), John Ralph (R & D Director) and Marcus Kenny
(Company Nutritionist).

SHOWS & EVENTS
Aviagen® Turkeys will have representatives at all the
major events for the poultry industry in 2016 & 2017.
We look forward to meeting you there!